QLFC Season 7
by thisisfaycountri
Summary: My submissions as chaser 2 for the Appleby Arrows.
1. Round 1

QLFC Season 7, Round 1

Chaser 2 for Appleby Arrows

Prompt:"The Holy Grail" King Arthur must answer three questions correctly to cross the Bridge of Death. The guardian gets a question wrong himself. Write about a canonly clever character being outwitted.

Optional Prompts: (color) Cream, (Words) Insufferable and coincidence.

Word count: 1017

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There were very few things in the school that Hermione wasn't good at.

She was good with spells, and potions, and books, and homework. She was a role model student and she prided herself in this. She would be the first to admit that in her friend group, she liked being the smartest.

There were very few things that Harry _was_ good at. Defense Against the Dark Arts and flying was the two that came to everyone when they thought about it, the only two they thought he had over the bushy haired girl.

What no one but the two of them knew was, there are actually three things that Harry can do better than Hermione.

Around third year Hermione had learned that the Ravenclaws had their own personal library, and it was a standard practice that if you could get into the room, you could use it. Hermione was ecstatic until she learned something she hadn't known before.

Hermione was Horrible at riddles.

She stood in front of the door for over an hour trying to get inside, frustrated almost to tears as she wracked her brain for an answer.

_You can carry it everywhere you go, and it doesn't get heavy. What is it?_

She had guessed a few times at first, but it was wrong. She'd given up that night as curfew came around and she had walked back to the Gryffindor tower, defeated. She was _smart_, she should know these things. The doorknob just didn't want her in the common room.

"Insufferable, stupid, prejudice, know-it-all hunk of _wood_." she'd muttered to herself, almost running into Harry as he rushed for the portrait too.

"Alright there, Mione?" he had asked after hearing her rant. Later, they would tease each other about it. _You're just an insufferable hunk of wood_, would be a fond insult between the two.

At the time, Hermione had just huffed at him.

"The knocker wouldn't let me in the Ravenclaw common room." She'd pouted. He'd given her a small smile in sympathy.

"I'll go with you tomorrow, maybe we can bounce ideas off of each other." he had answered, trying to cheer her up.

So after charms, Ron went to the dining hall and they headed to the Ravenclaw common room. When the knocker saw Hermione, it said it again.

_You can carry it everywhere you go, and it doesn't get heavy. What is it?_

"See! It's-"

"Your name," Harry answers easily. Hermione had gaped as the door clicked open.

"What? But, how?" She'd demanded of him. Harry had just shrugged it off.

"I've always been good at riddles." he'd defended himself. They went together into the room, expecting Blues and blacks and golds. Instead, they were met with Cream colored furniture and white bookshelves. A white marble fireplace and plush carpet that matched the chairs. A few people had greeted them but for the most part, they had been left alone. After the tournament, Harry had used it as an escape room. Hermione had used it to get away from her roommates.

For the first year, she did try and get in without Harry there. Sometimes she got in, other times, she had to drag Harry along.

_I'm taken from a mine and shut up in a wooden case from which I am never released, and yet I am used by almost everybody._ _What am I?_

"Pencil Lead, Mione, didn't you go to primary school?"

_They have not flesh, nor feathers, nor scales, nor bone. Yet they have fingers and thumbs of their own. What are they?_

"Gloves! Oh, I think I left mine in the quidditch room, too. I'll freeze on the way to herbology today."

But now, it was her last time in the hallway. She hadn't gotten into the room much unless Luna had let her in, this past year now that Hermione was alone, and Harry was gone. The first time the little blond girl had let her in it had been a coincidence. She'd been leaving as Hermione had been wanting to go in. after that, though, Hermione had the suspicion that the girl had been helping her in and out because she had been waiting for her, or at least asked to be alerted when she arrived. She squared off with the door and the eagle looked like it might be smirking.

_Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain on Earth?_

She gapped at it. That wasn't a riddle, that was history! Muggle history, at that! How was she supposed to know?

Resigned to waiting for Luna to come down and open the door, she went to lean against the wall.

"Mount Everest. Just because it wasn't discovered, doesn't mean it still wasn't the tallest." a smooth voice to her left says, having her spin in that direction.

"Harry!"

She throws her arms around her best friend and he catches her with a laugh.

"The door still giving you trouble, Mione?" he teases.

"Why are you here? Aren't you and Ron in training this month?" she ignores the question with a small blush and pulls away to look at him properly. He shrugs a little sheepishly.

"We couldn't miss you graduating, could we? The headmistress is letting us stay the night so we can see you and Gin off in the morning," he explains. She lets off an excited squeal and hugs him again, before motioning to the door.

"Well come on then, Harry. You answered the riddle, you go first." she urges, falling into their old routine easily. He leads the way into the peaceful room and picks a seat as she puts her book away.

One last night in the private library was exactly what she wanted, she decided as she saw two redheads appear from the dorm room stairs, followed by Luna. Ron gave a sheepish shrug at her look and her gaze settled on Harry.

"Well I had Luna let them in and I waited on you. I figured you'd have some trouble with the _insufferable hunk of wood_," he explained, smirking at her unamused huff.


	2. Round 2

QLFC Season 7, Round 2

Chaser 2 for Appleby Arrows

Prompt: _Cancer (June 21-July 22)._ Cancers are highly intuitive, and their psychic abilities manifest in tangible spaces. These crabs are highly sensitive to their environments, as well as extremely self-protective. Write about a character(s) who has the power to read something about people, i.e. minds/emotions/moods/colors, etc. OR write about a character(s) who is highly intuitive when it comes to others and is great at solving others' problems but is always obtuse when it's something concerning them.

Optional Prompts: (profession) Astrologer, (Word) Zodiac, (Song) Livin' On a Prayer- Bon Jovi.

Word count: 1009

_**Bold and Italic is song lyrics.**_

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_**We've got to hold on to what we've got**_

There are students running, screaming, terrified. When I can, I point them in the direction of a common room, or the Room of Requirement, to get them out of the school. The younger years shouldn't be here. The _older_ years shouldn't be here, but I can't argue and make them leave. I look around wildly, still searching for the one person I know wouldn't have left the students.

_She's safe._

The air in my lungs leaves a little easier as I spot Septima ushering the younger years up a staircase. She looks unharmed and I am happy to see her concentrating on the younger ones. We share the briefest of glances and she seems startled to see me rushing down the stairs, away from safety, but I know she will be happy I've finally made my decision. We'd been arguing for months about what I was going to do about the war. About what _we _were going to do about the war.

"_I am a teacher! An Astrologer. I study the sky, the stars, the planets! I don't study human behavior. I don't study war and conflict, I don't make the hard decisions to back one or the other!" I exclaim at her sudden question. Her lips quirk in a small smirk like she' expected this answer._

"_And what of your zodiacs, Aurora? Your constellations, the fairytales you tell the children? They're full of right and wrong, war and conflict. They're full of creature and human behavior."_

_So Septima HAD expected that reaction._

"_I'm not going to fight a war that doesn't concern me, Mia."_

"_Doesn't concern you? Just because your gaze is in the stars or in the future doesn't mean that the present doesn't mean anything!"_

"_The future is just as important! What if we don't make it? What if we can't see the students grow old, what if you don't see your niece again? Fighting in this war could change the outcome!"_

"_**It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not**__! The children have more of a future than we do. What about them!?"_

It had always come back to the children. The ones she loved to teach. The ones I loved telling stories to. The first years were always fascinated by the constellations; the second years, the stars and their names. Around third year they got into the zodiacs and if their crush's sign matched well with theirs or not. It was entertaining to see the girls whispering around each other and pointing at the charts I had them draw.

Every future I saw lately had the children in it. Maybe because of Septima constantly mentioning it, maybe because the decision I made was the right one. I wasn't sure. I just know that in almost every vision I have now, the children grow up, and for the most part, they get married and have their own kids. Whether Septima and I are still teaching by then, I am unsure.

"Aurora! Proffessor Sinistra, Over here!"

I hear one of the Weasley boys that graduated a few years ago, Bill, call for me, and I rush down the hall and turn the corner, nearly getting blasted with a spell. I shoot a volley back in response and I'm stuck in the battle with the black-robed men and women and the weary-looking Order.

Something brushes my back and I barely have time to react before Septima is there, firing off just as many spells as I am.

_**We've got each other, and that's a lot for love.**_

I told her once I couldn't pinpoint the time I fell in love with her. I knew by third year; like everyone else, I was checking her zodiac against mine. Gemini and Aries, one of the most compatible. Her Ravenclaw against my Slytherin wasn't the best choice, but I wasn't concerned about that. The futures I saw us having were what I wanted, and when she had agreed to start dating me in fifth year, I'd already known that I was in love. I didn't tell her until seventh year, and by then she had admitted that she was in love with me, too.

And now we are both putting our lives on the line for a future I can't see.

_**We'll give it a shot, we're halfway there**_.

Hearing his voice, _Voldemorts_ voice, over Hogwarts sends a shiver down my spine. I keep an eye out for the Potter boy, Harry, because everyone knows that he would give himself up in a heartbeat. I help the injured get to the Great Hall, and I help the teachers and Order members get the dead in as well. I float one of the twins to rest on the ground just seconds before his family converges, and I turn to Septima, who is looking at our good friend, Remus Lupin, and his wife, Nymphadora Tonks. She looks horror-struck, but before I can move to her side I see McGonagall making her way to her. I turn back to the Weasleys and give them what comfort I can before I move to help Poppy heal minor scrapes and bruises.

When people start screaming and running outside, I follow blindly, stopping dead on the stairs when I see the sight before me: the Potter boy, dead in Rubeus' arms, and Voldemort making a show of it.

_**Take my hand, we'll make it I swear.**_

Septima's hand slips into mine and I squeeze tightly. This doesn't make sense! In every future I saw, every outcome I wrote down, the Potter boy lives! Whether it be in captivity or in triumph, he was kept alive!

Septima stifles a sob next to me and I pull her close. I had reassured her multiple times that we lost very few students, in every vision I saw, and she's already seen two dead now. She was a Gemini, the kind, the loving. She wasn't a fighter. _We _wasn't fighters. We didn't put our lives on the line like the Leos and the Sagittarius. The only reason I was fighting was because she asked me to. Because I saw Harry _winning!_

"This isn't right," I murmur to her. She gives me a confused look, but before I can explain what I mean, the Potter boy is up, moving, firing, _alive_. There's a moment of stunned silence before we're moving, still locked at the hand, fighting, helping the boy win.

_**Whoah, living on a prayer.**_


	3. Round 3

QLFC Season 7, Round 3

Chaser 2 for Appleby Arrows

Prompt: The Choliya of Uttarakhand; write about a character who is superstitious. The superstition must be a key element of the story and influential in the character's life.

Optional prompts: (word) robust, (object) snow, (quote) "What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies." - Aristotle

Word count: 1239

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"Blaise wake up!" Draco's voice has me jerking awake.

"What?"

'You have ten minutes to get to breakfast. I thought you woke up already!" he exclaims, already going through my trunk. I curse, swinging my legs off the bed and standing. I freeze immediately.

"Blaise, what's wrong? Let's go!" he shoves the clothes at me and steers me to the bathroom.

_Left side. I stood on the left side. I have to go back. I have to sleep again, reset the cycle-_

"Blaise! Food!" he pushes me again.

"Draco, I got up on the I _left side_. My day is ruined!"

"This crap again? Your mother is the superstitious one, not you. Let's go!"

Of course, I was superstitious. I was raised with the superstitions. I had to be, mother felt like she was cursed and was doing anything she could to extend her life. I followed along of course, but some of them stick with me even when I'm in school. I get dressed quickly, hoping that luck was on my side for the day.

"Okay, food!" Draco drags me down to the great hall and I follow him reluctantly, just wanting to go back and reset my mistake. Before I can pull my arm away, He's piling a napkin with bacon and sausage and toast.

"IT's Friday, we've got Herbology first. Let's go!" he pushes the napkin in my hands and spins me. My bag catches the table, and the salt shakers rattle and fall over.

_Oh no. no no no no no._

I'm shoved out the door before I can throw some over my shoulder and I want to cry. Already my day was shot, and now I was just adding to the bad luck.

"Quit it, we're going to be late because of you," Draco tells me before I can even open my mouth.

"Draco, I spilled the salt. And you didn't let me throw it over my shoulder!"

"What's going to happen? Some demon is going to come up and possess you? Just get through today and you can go to bed early." he tells me uncaringly. He throws the doors to the outdoors open and the gust of wind that hits me has me freezing immediately, even though I was still in the warm building.

"It snowed last night?" Draco whines, but he's already out the door. Neither one of us had any kind of warm clothing on, just our uniforms. My pant legs get soaked immediately and my good shoes are ruined by the time we get to the greenhouse. At least with some heating charms, we weren't freezing, and the greenhouse itself was warm once we fell into the doorway.

"Alright class, we're having a quiz today. Name and date on the top, and take your time, once you're done you can leave." Ms. Sprout says as she enters the classroom. She looks under the weather, and I realize she's probably only giving us the quiz to say we had class on her records. I shrug and take the paper passed to me, getting to work on it quickly. At the end, I scrawl my name at the top and then pause at the date. November 13th? Could my day get any worse? The left side of the bed, spilled salt, and the cursed day. Friday the Thirteenth. I just want to crawl back in bed and hide from the world now, but I have defense next. Did I even want to go to classes today? Maybe I could go to Pomfrey and fake an illness.

The rest of the day I'm on edge. It seems like everything that could go wrong, did. In the bathroom between classes, I caught my reflection in a broken mirror. That one I don't believe as much- how a soul can get caught once a mirror is broken was always baffling to me- but since I was already having bad luck, it still made my mood worsen. I had a black cat cross my path outside after Herbology. I Spilt ink all over my finished homework in defense as I was handing it in. I was in a rush and accidentally walked under the Filch was using in the charms hallway.

Strangely enough, I wasn't having the bad luck though. Draco was. He tripped on the stairs every time we had to use them. He dropped his school supplies twice. He broke a library book in half. His bag ripped open in the middle of a busy hallway, and he lost his cloak somewhere through the day. He had a whole jug of pumpkin juice dumped on him at lunch, someone slammed his hand in the portrait leading to the dorm room, and he forgot the password to the common room until I caught up with him. I was genuinely getting worried for him because it was getting worse and worse.

"Why is it happening to me though? You're the one with the spooky shit happening," he whines as we trudge around outside. We were still looking for his cloak, and the only place we hadn't searched is outside. We were dressed for the snow now at least, which I was thankful for.

"Do you read Aristotle?"

"He's one of your muggle philosophers, right? You've told me to, but I haven't, no."

"He has a saying. 'What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.' Maybe it's all happening to you because anything and everything superstitious is happening to me."

"So this is your fault!" he cries dramatically, flinging his arms out to encompass the castle in general.

"That's not what I mean," I tell him, laughing when he makes a rude gesture and continues walking back to the greenhouse. Thirty minutes later we still don't have his cloak, but it's time for dinner.

"It will turn up, relax. It's not like anyone can steal it, it has your crest on it." I tell him, trying to cut off his whining.

"I know. Mother's going to be furious if I don't bring it home at Yule."

"That's over a month from now, relax!" I steer him to our seats at the Slytherin table and force him to sit. For whatever reason, on Fridays, our food is always a little more…. Robust. It tastes better, the texture is better, the presentation is better. Everything about it is just better than every other day. I don't pay attention to other tables, but that's the way it's been at the Slytherin one since the first year.

And today wasn't any different. The ham smelt better then it did on Monday, the glaze was shinier, the mashed potatoes whipped more. At least one thing was right today.

"This was a good way to end a crappy day." Draco murmurs from next to me, half asleep he was full. I laugh at his expression, he was blissed out on food.

"Go back to bed, reset the cycle. Everything will be better in the morning." I agree, steering him out of the great hall and to the common room. He disappears to bed as soon as we get there, and I spend time working on my homework. I make sure to get into bed on my left side so that I can truly reset the cycle before going to sleep.

When I wake up, an elf had found Draco's cloak and draped it over the end of his bed.


End file.
